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Kindle fire? [message #69936]

Mon, 31 October 2011 20:39

LoveJB
Messages: 174
Registered: October 2011
Location: Cali

Master

I'm seriously thinking about getting a Kindle fire in mid November. They cost $199 and they are due to be released on Nov 15th.

Has anyone heard anything bad about them? Do you know anything about "cloud"? It seems that Cloud is how we will be entering the internet with the Kindle Fire.

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Re: Kindle fire? [message #69938 is a reply to message #69936]

Mon, 31 October 2011 21:03

Wayne Parham
Messages: 18793
Registered: January 2001

Illuminati (33rd Degree)

Amazon has done a pretty good job with their devices, and I expect this one to be pretty popular. It's at the right price point. If they can get enough attention, it might just really take off.

The "cloud" is a new buzzword that means remote storage on the internet. It is usually automated so you don't really know your data is being stored remotely as opposed to being on the local device you're using. Most handheld devices store configuration options and some downloadable content (like books) but stream audio, video and other realtime data feeds.

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41Xx9W8gdRL.jpg

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Re: Kindle fire? [message #69939 is a reply to message #69938]

Mon, 31 October 2011 22:38

Shane
Messages: 1117
Registered: May 2009

Illuminati (3rd Degree)

Which means when you have spotty wi-fi service you are S.O.L. I wish they would have put a damn SD card reader on this thing, then I would be more serious about buying one.

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Re: Kindle fire? [message #69940 is a reply to message #69939]

Mon, 31 October 2011 23:26

Wayne Parham
Messages: 18793
Registered: January 2001

Illuminati (33rd Degree)

Well, that's true. But no phone charges either, so it's kind of a pick your poison kind of deal. If you travel a lot and so are stuck with crappy hotel Wifi, then a Wifi-only device is probably not for you. But if you're not a big traveler, and would be mostly using it at home, I think Wifi is a better deal. To me, it makes the most sense to connect with Wifi at home, and 3G/4G out on the road.

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Re: Kindle fire? [message #69944 is a reply to message #69940]

Tue, 01 November 2011 07:42

Shane
Messages: 1117
Registered: May 2009

Illuminati (3rd Degree)

Point taken. But it would be nice to load the 1000+ books I already have on an SD card and not have to worry about it.

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Re: Kindle fire? [message #69945 is a reply to message #69944]

Tue, 01 November 2011 08:04

Wayne Parham
Messages: 18793
Registered: January 2001

Illuminati (33rd Degree)

That's for sure. Most eReaders will allow that. I wonder if there's a way to access the Amazon cloud storage from another system, so you could upload books and other content from your PC, allowing access on the eReader device. That's the way most cloud access works - it's available to all web-connected devices.

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Re: Kindle fire? [message #69946 is a reply to message #69945]

Tue, 01 November 2011 08:40

Shane
Messages: 1117
Registered: May 2009

Illuminati (3rd Degree)

I would venture to bet that the 2nd generation Fire will have a micro SD card reader built in, especially if they want to compete better with the Nook.

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Re: Kindle fire? [message #69948 is a reply to message #69946]

Tue, 01 November 2011 09:46

Wayne Parham
Messages: 18793
Registered: January 2001

Illuminati (33rd Degree)

You might be right. Would certainly be a welcome addition.

I just checked the Amazon support forum and read that the cloud is free for Amazon-purchased content, but not sure about uploaded content. I see some mentions that it's free up to 5Gb, or you can upgrade to larger storage for a fee. Not sure if that's attractive to you or not, but it is one way to use the content you already own.

Amazon Cloud Storage

As an aside, personally, I don't like cloud storage. But that's mostly because I'm kinda private (paranoid?) and don't like putting documents or anything even moderately private or sensitive on a public system, even with encryption. Then again, I have a lot of published content on various websites, and I find that useful. Lots of audio related PDF files are here on this site, for example. So I'm not opposed to cloud storage for some kinds of content.

I think for most people, cloud storage is convenient, even attractive. I was surprised, for example, when I saw Melissa prefer a cloud-based image-processor to more traditional "paint programs". To me, it made no sense to use server applications and cloud store for image processing. If nothing else, it's slower. But it did make some of what she did easier, and the user interface was intuitive and simple. Her pictures were available anywhere, and could be viewed or even edited on any web-connected device. So I think most people don't even really realize when their content bridges the gap from local to cloud. The majority of people probably don't know how the underlying mechanisms work, or where content is stored, and could really care less.

So all that to say I'm totally with you on the local storage option. I'd prefer to have the flash memory in the device. I don't think it will bother everyone, but as for me, I like having maintaining local copies of stuff and downloading it directly to the device.

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Re: Kindle fire? [message #69957 is a reply to message #69948]

Tue, 01 November 2011 20:23

LoveJB
Messages: 174
Registered: October 2011
Location: Cali

Master

Wow, that was a lot of information. So I was planning on using the Kindle at home and at work. I am limited to where I can online at work and I am trying to figure out a way around these limitations. We have WiFi at work, so it sounds like it would be ok. I also have WiFi at home.

I don't get the whole book thing though. So I buy the books and they are on my computer. I load them onto my Kindle. Are they not available to me anywhere? I don't need WiFi to read the books right?

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